


Mine Own

by zinjadu



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-26
Updated: 2012-06-26
Packaged: 2017-11-08 15:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/444746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinjadu/pseuds/zinjadu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toph would never let anyone take what was hers.  That goes especially for Lin.  Or, Toph left Lin's dad because she knows she'd be the awesomest parent, no help need apply.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mine Own

_now_

She could tell he was happy. Of course, he would be. _His_ body wouldn’t undergo horrific changes, _his_ mood wouldn’t swing, _his_ life wouldn’t revolve around a tiny human now no bigger than a freaking grape!

No, that was all down to her.

It made her mad.

No, not just mad, it massively pissed her off.

So she punched him, her fist connecting solidly with his face. He staggered. She smirked, never having taken him by surprise before. A small victory.

“Toph,” he said, sounding hurt and confused, small even though he was massive. “What have I done? I thought you loved me, as I love you.”

Maybe she did love him. Okay, it was more than maybe, but she wasn’t about to let him know that. She had thought she loved Sokka, and she did. Just not like she loved _him_. But it wasn’t fair to compare him to other guys, she knew that.

After all, how could any guy compete with the spirit of the grandest mountain in the world?

_before_

Once a year, rain or shine, Toph left Republic City. Disappeared into the great wilds of the world and explored. Some years saw her do little but relax in the sunshine, others saw her cause havoc (she would later tell Aang she’d been out Doing Good, just that her brand of Doing Good so happened to involve rock slides), but one year saw her fall in love.

She’d never planned it, not like Toph planned much in her life. At work, there were always things to be done, but life? Life happened. Wait and listen and act, that was who and what she was. And what he was.

He had surprised her, which few people could do. She had thought he was a pillar of stone, that’s what he felt like anyway. When she calmed down to stop trying to bend him into oblivion, she took a second feel and found that he was clearer to her than anyone else ever appeared to her form of sight. Most people appeared as vague shapes, humanoid, but no fine detail. For that she needed to touch someone directly. _Him_ , she could see everything.

And she liked what she saw.

_now_

So yeah, she loved him, but Toph knew there was only so much she could take, and it would take everything she had to raise this kid. Her face broke into a wicked grin, and she lifted her chin up high.

“Look, buddy,” she started, never once looking back. So much changed in an instant, and now the kid came first. Always would. “We had a good time, but I’ve got a kid to think of now.”

“ _We_ have a child.”

“No!” her voice was sharp, quick, as sure as a rock to the head. “ _I_ have a child. _You_ are a spirit. You can’t leave your mountain, but I can and will. So good-bye. Smell you later.”

He didn’t try to stop her. A mountain knows the winds and waters of time will leave it less and less over the years. So too would the absence of this brilliant woman and her child become. A lessening. He listened to her as she listened to the earth itself and let her go. Through the earth, he could feel her feet upon his slopes for the last time, and then, she was gone.

He returned to the spirit world and slept once more.

_after_

The labor had taken nearly two days. Toph had been screaming, Katara frantic, and Republic City had seen more than its fare share of earthquakes. When one of the tired earthbender repairmen had suggested trying to cut her off from the earth while she was in labor, he was surprised to find the Avatar himself show so much anger.

“She is in pain, and even though she would never, ever admit it, I think she might just be scared. She’s bringing a child into this world, and you would dare suggest we take the earth away from her?” The room smelled vaguely of urine afterwards.

In the end, Katara laid a pale, green eyed girl in Toph’s arms. It seemed like everyone was waiting outside her door to see the kid. Sokka with nervous pacing, Aang meditating, some of her old Earth Rumble friends punching each other good naturedly, a few trusted lieutenants she might call friends one day. Even Iroh was here, the old dragon. Zuko sent his regards, but well, kingdoms, you know how they are. Still, he’d sent enough baby things to supply an army of the little poop monsters.

“She’s beautiful,” Katara said, while cleaning up the other woman.

Toph held the girl to her breast, fierce as a badgermole in these last few minutes before her friends and then the world met her fatherless child. “She’s _mine_.”


End file.
